What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Paul Ryan on the stump. Even though he wasn't to speak until 11:30, my husband and I headed out early yesterday morning to Lakewood High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. Already cars were crowding streets and people were lining up to get in.
From our vantage point in the press area, the crowd was energized and excited about various down ticket races. By the time the main attraction arrived, the energy in the room was palpable. This is to be expected, of course. This was an event for party activists. When I mentioned I was headed out there yesterday, member Frank Monaldo wrote:
Mollie, I would be interested to see if there are any differences in your impressions of the rally and what we see in the press.
The answer is yes and no. Let's start by looking at how the legacy media and the bigwigs are covering Paul Ryan on the stump. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank had written up the previous campaign stop in a way that was completely unrecognizable from what I saw. He began by saying that the crowd just didn't respond to him. "Crickets," he said. Then he immediately contradicted himself by saying that when protesters interrupted him, the crowd rushed to his defense (but so loudly that they couldn't hear what he was saying).
It's just typical Dana Milbank stuff. Barely comprehensible, internally contradictory and designed -- above all -- to make anyone right of center look bad.
Compare that with the scene I saw in Lakewood. My husband, in "The Natural Look out, America. Paul Ryan is not just a policy wonk—he's a really good retail politician" described one part:
For one, he does local color well. It doesn't hurt that he's been vacationing in Colorado for years. He speaks fondly of coming to Colorado to fish for "brookies and rainbow" and the fitness buff casually mentions he's been "climbing fourteeners for over 20 years." (I have many Colorado relatives, and had to explain to multiple members of the press pool that this was local slang for peaks in the Rockies that rise above 14,000 feet.) Indeed, it was these on-pitch references to life in the Centennial State that local newsradio powerhouse KOA had on loop the rest of the day.
Having won over the crowd with pleasantries, Ryan imperceptibly worked his speech to a crescendo. The famous wonk wisely didn't stump on intricacies of, say, the Wyden-Ryan Medicare reform proposals. He made a series of moral arguments:
Guess what? Government doesn't regulate happiness, government doesn't define your happiness -- you define it for yourself. That's how we do it in America.
What we are offering is a very clear contrast, a very clear choice. What kind of country do you want to have? What kind of people do you want to be? We want that American idea, that opportunity society with a safety net that's there to help people can't help themselves, that's there to help people get back on their feet who are struggling.But it's the opportunity society, the American ideal, where you can meet your potential, nothing is stopping you from meeting your destiny. Our job is to get the barriers out of your way, it's not to look at people who are working hard, who are succeeding, with resentment. It's to say, 'here's how to get things done, we want more people to be successful, because if more people are successful, America grows and we create jobs."
At that point, the crowd in the Lakewood High School gymnasium cut him off, pounded the bleachers, and offered a full 22 seconds of applause. But they weren't done yet—an older man in the crowd stood up, pointed at Ryan and screamed "Hey look, no teleprompter!" The crowd roared in approval, not because it was gratuitous swipe at the president, but because they were so grateful that Ryan was providing not just competing policy vision to Obama, but a substantive rhetorical alternative. And they clearly liked what they were hearing.
Yes. It was completely unexpected. As I've mentioned, I've been following Ryan for years and have known many people who worked for him. My impression of him from this is that he is incredibly hard-working, disciplined and smart. I had absolutely no idea he was such a good politician.
His charm, his genuine ability to connect with voters while offering persuasive rhetoric about freedom and liberty? Who does that remind you of?
So back to the media. You'll never in a million years get favorable coverage from the legacy media. That's obvious. And they are all making that rather dramatically known in Ryan's first week as the nominee.
But as we drove around Colorado yesterday, the clip that kept airing on the radio was Paul's reference to fourteeners and trout. This is both good and bad for him. Good in that all the other media criticisms of him being a tyrant who wants to burn your house down are going to come off even sillier than they already do. But bad in that there were also good clips that were more substantive. And those didn't get played.
The media always claim they want to cover the real issues. That's never true. But now that it's the major difference between the Obama and Romney campaign, I think we'll see an almost pathological desire to avoid giving readers and viewers facts about our entitlement programs and their effect on us. And if you want to know anything about what a Paul Ryan speech is actually like, I'd suggest you go hear it in person. There's no substitute for experiencing it in person.
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Nov '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Wow. That Washington Post piece was unbelievable. How can a "reporter" get away with such a flagrantly dishonest story? I mean, OK, I wasn't there, but even if I had not read your piece, I would have been able to tell that there is nothing remotely credible about the Washington Post thing.
Nov '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
By the way, thanks for this. I have been sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for your report.
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Well, the Post piece on the Iowa campaign stop was unrecognizable from the video I watched of it -- but it was a different stop on the campaign trail. Still, his perspective didn't match the video evidence of the same campaign stop (or, for that matter, his own words later in his column).
Not only do they get away with this false reporting, though, they get rewarded for it.
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
You had asked how to find out about a Ryan stop in NC. I figure your best bet is to get in contact with the State GOP there. You should have at least a couple of opportunities near you. But these events can happen kind of suddenly and without much warning at all. So you have to keep an ear out for them.
May '12
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
the fitness buff casually mentions he's been "climbing fourteeners for over 20 years." (I have many Colorado relatives, and had to explain to multiple members of the press pool that this was local slang for peaks in the Rockies that rise above 14,000 feet.)
You had to explain that? With the mountains practically if not actually serving as a backdrop?
I got that right away, and I am in Brooklyn.
Either the MSM folks have stuffed themselves with so much information there's no room back there to move around and make easy inferences, or they're too self-important to use common sense.
Jun '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Wish I'd been there. But your story has me all pumped up.
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Edward Smith:the fitness buff casually mentions he's been "climbing fourteeners for over 20 years." (I have many Colorado relatives, and had to explain to multiple members of the press pool that this was local slang for peaks in the Rockies that rise above 14,000 feet.)
You had to explain that? With the mountains practically if not actually serving as a backdrop?
Well, I took great delight in explaining it to a few reporters myself but I'm not going to harsh on them too much for not knowing. When you're transcribing quickly, you have to process a lot. You're basically riding around in buses and airplanes, shuttled to some new stop where you have to learn completely new identities for State Senate, State House, Congress and various other races. You have to decipher the local lingo. And you have to do it very quickly. I'm sure if they'd been given even a moment to figure it out, many of them would have.
Oct '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
I am very excited that Mr. Ryan will be on the ticket for the first ballot I ever cast in a US election! Hopefully my absentee ballot in Colorado will help throw those 9 electoral votes back to the GOP.
Nov '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Well, the Post piece on the Iowa campaign stop was unrecognizable from the video I watched of it -- but it was a different stop on the campaign trail.
I realized that after I wrote the comment, but then I thought it still made sense. It just isn't particularly likely that two campaign stops would have such a different feel. And I had seen video of the Iowa stop, which sure looked different from the article as well, and a lot like what you describe.
My husband is doing a lot of volunteering with various Republican things around here, and I'm sure that he'll let me know when there's another event here in NC. But I thought maybe reporters had more advance information.
Jan '11
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
The problem with bias, usually, is not that reporters tell a different story from what they really see. They're not lying. They relay exactly what they see.
The problem is that they only see what they want to see.
If Milbank witnessed a conservative helping an old lady across the street, he would report that the conservative had not ... yet ... stolen her purse, because that's what he was looking for.
May '12
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
I wish this was their excuse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ32mmu4gBM
Catch 'em young/treat 'em rough/don't you never tell them nothing/'Cause that's what get results
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Well, I took great delight in explaining it to a few reporters myself but I'm not going to harsh on them too much for not knowing. When you're transcribing quickly, you have to process a lot. You're basically riding around in buses and airplanes, shuttled to some new stop where you have to learn completely new identities for State Senate, State House, Congress and various other races. You have to decipher the local lingo. And you have to do it very quickly. I'm sure if they'd been given even a moment to figure it out, many of them would have. · 28 minutes ago
Jun '11
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Thanks for the reporting. I suspected that there would be a divergence in reports.
May '12
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
I like to think that the best journalists, the ones who don't drink the kool aid and don't have to climb in bed with their subjects to get the "scoops" are the ones who are not so distracted by a deliberately created dust storm of useless factoids that they cannot quickly guess that in The Rocky Mountain State, a "14er" refers to the height of a mountain.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Well, I took great delight in explaining it to a few reporters myself but I'm not going to harsh on them too much for not knowing. When you're transcribing quickly, you have to process a lot. You're basically riding around in buses and airplanes, shuttled to some new stop where you have to learn completely new identities for State Senate, State House, Congress and various other races. You have to decipher the local lingo. And you have to do it very quickly. I'm sure if they'd been given even a moment to figure it out, many of them would have. · 46 minutes ago
Dec '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
"The famous wonk wisely didn't stump on intricacies of, say, the Wyden-Ryan Medicare reform proposals. He made a series of moral arguments"
This is great to hear, Mollie, and exactly what Dr. Rahe and others have been saying Romney needs to do. I hope Ryan making the moral argument will lead to Romney doing the same.
Dec '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Just tell me he didn't sound scripted. I kind of wish he'd take questions, although I know they're all just out on the stump giving stump speeches... over, and over, and over again.
It's what dampened my spirits when I saw Sarah Palin. I didn't really need to wait in a cold, damp, dark parking lot for 2 hours early one morning to hear her say the same thing I'd already heard on television.
Dec '11
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Maybe I should move. I get so jealous when I read a post like this, or a similar one from Ann Althouse. I live on the San Francisco Peninsula, and we, as voters, are taken for granted. Nobody campaigns, runs for office, gives speeches, puts up a lawn sign . . . My Congresswoman even holds "phone in" townhall meetings.
Enough about me. Thanks for the report.
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
Western Chauvinist: Just tell me he didn't sound scripted. I kind of wish he'd take questions, although I know they're all just out on the stump giving stump speeches... over, and over, and over again.
It's what dampened my spirits when I saw Sarah Palin. I didn't really need to wait in a cold, damp, dark parking lot for 2 hours early one morning to hear her say the same thing I'd already heard on television. · 3 hours ago
It was his stump speech but, it still being pretty fresh to him, didn't sound too scripted. Let's check back in in a few weeks ....
May '12
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
King Lear is scripted, and yet actors have managed to make it sound fresh and moving for 400 years now. The Yiddish translation got the audience calling "Author. Author" and had audience members bringing chicken soup to the cast.
Scripted isn't the problem. Bad or uninspired casting is.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Western Chauvinist: Just tell me he didn't sound scripted. I kind of wish he'd take questions, although I know they're all just out on the stump giving stump speeches... over, and over, and over again.
It's what dampened my spirits when I saw Sarah Palin. I didn't really need to wait in a cold, damp, dark parking lot for 2 hours early one morning to hear her say the same thing I'd already heard on television. · 3 hours ago
It was his stump speech but, it still being pretty fresh to him, didn't sound too scripted. Let's check back in in a few weeks .... · 1 hour ago
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
I forgot to post a picture of the rally. I'm updating the post above.
Aug '10
Re: What Surprised Me Most About Paul Ryan On The Stump
The Legacy Media is the enemy.